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Happy birthday Mackenzie Rose Hagenbaugh!

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Game Commission brings back popular game-lands tours

Winning a District 2 field hockey championship last season didn&#8217;t quite leave the Wyoming Valley West Spartans feeling their resurgence was really complete.A couple of ties during the regular season kept Valley West out of the late-season running for a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 title. And the Spartans weren&#8217;t happy with the way their state playoff opener turned out, with a difficult season-ending 3-2 loss to eventual state semifinalist Villa Maria.They&#8217;re coming back for another crack.A Valley West team that returns every starter from last year&#8217;s District 2 Class 2A championship team, including Division 1 college-bound seniors Madison Woods and Mercedes Jasterzenski, enters 2017 looking for some lost glory that the Spartans felt got away.&#8220;We want to go all the way,&#8221; said Jasterzenski, who&#8217;s headed to Hofstra next season. &#8220;At the same time, we know there&#8217;s a lot of work to do in between.&#8221;Their loaded lineup packs plenty of punch, with star scorers Foto Tsioles, Irelyand Sullivan and Jasterzenski joining Natalie Zasada &#8212; whose move from defense to forward last season led to a Spartans scoring surge through the second half of the season.&#8220;The important thing is starting off from where we finished last year,&#8221; said Woods, who will play for Penn next fall. &#8220;And building off that.&#8221;But to win the WVC Division 1, the Spartans will have to go through a built-in juggernaut.PIAA Class 2A semifinalists Lake-Lehman and Crestwood are both eyeing the league&#8217;s division title, and Wyoming Seminary may be stronger than both of them.While Lehman graduated current Division 1 college players Taylor Alba (Temple), Sarah Sabaluski (Louisville) and Lilli Stapanski (St. Francis) from the team that went 13-0-1 to win Division 1, the Black Knights have more than enough returning to make a run at defending their league and District 2 Class A crowns.Seniors Makayla Adams, the WVC&#8217;s second-leading scorer with 42 points a year ago, and goalie Alicia Galasso, who turned in the league&#8217;s second-best save percentage at .897 a year ago, will both play for Division 1 Quinnipiac next season. Senior midfielder Lynea Gregory is one of the league&#8217;s best defenders and features some scoring pop, while forward Carey-Anne Keiper produced 30 points and was a playoff scoring star in 2016.A Crestwood team that finished 11-2-1 and was loaded with inexperience when it dropped a tough Class 2A district final to Valley West last season is a year older and wiser.It&#8217;ll be tough for the Comets to replace graduated goalie Marlee Dillon, who kept them in most games in 2016, but they should be more explosive on offense. Senior midfielder Arden Morgans returns off a 12-goal season, Maddie Granoski emerged as a scorer in the second half of last season and midfielders Katie Karpinski and Mackenzie Kile are dangerous playmakers.Sem can pull big plays from anywhere.The Blue Knights bring back two of the WVC&#8217;s top 10 scorers in forwards Hannah Maxwell, a sophomore who finished second in the WVC with 17 goals and third with 39 points and junior Aubrey Mytych, who had 32 points in 2016.A Sem team that went 12-2 and finished runner-up to Lehman lost four-year starting goalie Alexis Sokach, but has plenty of punch to out-gun opponents. The Blue Knights feature junior forward Kelsey Reznick (23 points), who may be the team&#8217;s best pure player, sophomore midfielder Alex Wesneski (11 goals), senior forward Alicia Carr (nine assists) and talented senior Emily Sims.Don&#8217;t discount Dallas, which brings back the league&#8217;s best goalie in senior Melinda Ratchford &#8212; who had a league-best .909 save percentage last season &#8212; and rode the scoring of seniors Hannah Yanovich (13 goals, 3 assists) and Sam Banks (5 goals) into the District 2 Class 2A semis.Coughlin still has senior Hannah Rushkowski, who scored five goals last season and was a starter on the Crusaders&#8217; WVC Division 1 and District 2 Class 3A title team two years ago. Super sophomores Jolene Ulichney, an exciting scorer, and Brianna Lee, a tough goalie, could make the Crusaders interesting.Hazleton Area could be a darkhorse, with forwards Megan Reed, a senior, and Jill Buchman, a sophomore, leading the offense.And a Lackawanna Trail team that won the three-team District 2 Class 3A field last season, will lean on nine-goal scorer Courtney Dwyer and the Beamer sisters, Lauren and Rachel. The Lions lost nine seniors and the heart of their defense when goalie Sarah Wisenfluh graduated, and will have to adjust to Gary Wilmet, who takes over for long-time Trail coach Sandy Spott.Other new coach faces changes around the conference include Erin McGinley, a former Wyoming Sem standout who replaces Chris Comiskey at Wyoming Area; Samantha Krut, who takes over for Amy Wojcik at Abington Heights; and in the WVC Division 2, Hannah Beech, who replaced Stephanie Wysocki and tries to keep a short-handed GAR team afloat for a full season.That may be the biggest mystery in Division 2, where Holy Redeemer is set to rule, and quite likely, run the table again.The Royals went 12-0 while winning the division last season, earned their first berth in a district title game by battling Lehman into overtime in the Class A championship, captured their first state playoff win and made it to the PIAA Class A semifinals.Redeemer has the nucleus of that squad coming back, led by big scorers Leah Mullery, Kayla Kruk McKenna Dolan, Caton Fahey and Kat Finnegan. New goalie Meredythe Baird will step into the cage for graduated Randie Kuhar.Meyers could make things interesting, as Selena Sota returns with her 16 points and 4 assists as the league&#8217;s fourth-leading scorer, along with dangerous senior midfielder Alexis Bruno.And senior midfielder Amber Miller and sophomore forward Irelyn Kishbaugh could keep Northwest hanging around.&#8220;I think we have a mindset we&#8217;re moving forward,&#8221; Jasterzenski said. &#8220;We&#8217;re also looking for a lot more than last year.&#8221;<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Mercedes Jasterzenski, left, and the rest of the Wyoming Valley West Spartans will try to hold off Emily Farrell of Dallas in the chase for the WVC Division 1 field hockey title this season. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_dallaswvw02CMYK.jpg</photo0><caption0>Mercedes Jasterzenski, left, and the rest of the Wyoming Valley West Spartans will try to hold off Emily Farrell of Dallas in the chase for the WVC Division 1 field hockey title this season. </caption0><photoCredit0>Times Leader file photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Valley West has big guns, and bigger goals in mind</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Paul Sokoloskipsokoloski@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>Predicted order of finish(2016 records in parentheses)Division 11. Wyoming Valley West (10-2-2)2. Wyoming Seminary (12-2)3. Lake-Lehman (13-0-1)4. Crestwood (11-2-1)5. Dallas (8-6)&#92;6. Hazleton Area (7-5-2)7. Coughlin (8-6)8. Lackawanna Trail (8-5-1)9. Wyoming Area (6-8)10. Honesdale (4-9-1)11. Delaware Valley (7-7)12. Wallenpaupack (4-10)13. Pittston Area (1-13)14. Abington Heights (1-13)15. Tunkhannock (1-13)Division 21. Holy Redeemer (12-0)2. Meyers (9-3)3. Northwest (8-4)4. Hanover Area (6-6)5. Berwick (4-7-1)6. Nanticoke Area (2-9-1)7. GAR (0-12)</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</shirttailMeta></div>

WVC Season Preview: Valley West field hockey team has big guns, and big goals in mind